Even five years ago, it was impossible to predict the spread of such technologies as Wi-Fi, which allows workers to become office nomads, yet always connected to e-mail and crucial corporate data. The technology has proved so popular, it’s a key force in reshaping the topography of the office. So what will the workplace actually look like five years from now, when such tools are ubiquitous and new technologies are springing up in equally surprising ways? At Cisco, and at Microsoft, researchers are looking for answers, trying to keep their companies at the vanguard of ongoing change brought about by technology.
Cisco VP Dave Rossetti heads a research group of 100 colleagues working on the office of the future. Rossetti talks about a workspace comprising free-floating employees who walk into a building and find an empty “generic office” nearest to their current team of collaborators. The office features boringly blank walls and surfaces when unoccupied, but senses when an employee wants to sit there, perhaps by reading his ID badge. Then it automatically customizes itself. Suddenly, the proper e-mail account appears on the PC, the Internet telephone adopts that employee’s extension. Even the digital picture frames render photos of the employee’s family, or a favorite Ansel Adams vista.
To make it all work–and to ensure roving employees can be properly located for urgent business–Rossetti and his team are working on technology called “presence.” It functions like popular instant-messaging software, which knows when you’re working on your PC and are available to chat. In the office of the future, presence will work on all your phones, PCs, laptops and handheld devices. When someone calls or e-mails you, software will route the incoming communication to whichever device you’re currently using. Rossetti has a crude prototype system configured for himself; he calls this “eating his own dog food.” When someone phones him at his office and he doesn’t pick up, the Cisco network routes the call to his home phone.
Eight hundred miles to the north, Microsoft has a somewhat different vision of the workplace in five years. Researchers don’t necessarily see the same physical transformation, but they’re predicting changes just as drastic. The company’s prophesies are on display in a chilly demonstration hall called the Center for Information Work on the company’s Redmond, Wash., campus. When visitors walk in, they’re treated to a simulation of the futuristic office of a mock company: carry a laptop or handheld PC into a meeting room or new office, and the devices immediately establish a wireless connection to the nearest printer or computer monitor. The company also imagines huge flat-panel displays on the walls of all conference rooms, multiple monitors on every desk and widespread use of videoconferencing. Instead of one camera’s recording a meeting, Microsoft researchers are developing a mushroom-shaped “Ringcam” that automatically trains one of five cameras on each person sitting in the room and broadcasts the meeting on the company intranet.
Like Cisco, Microsoft also thinks networks will have to get smarter about where we are and what device we’re carrying. Microsoft’s vision of the concept is called BestCom. Researcher Eric Horvitz says the software will read your calendar and have an idea of where you are at each moment. You’ll also be able to tell it how you prefer to be contacted (phone, e-mail, IM) and by whom. For example, you might choose to let your boss call you on your mobile phone, but have a stranger or pesky colleague routed to your e-mail. BestCom operates like a secretary, Horvitz says, and (for better or worse) you’ll never be out of touch.
All this sounds a bit scary, of course. But don’t call your local privacy advocate just yet. Today’s transforming technologies like Wi-Fi actually didn’t bubble up from the research labs of Microsoft and Cisco. The next set of changes that shape the future of the workplace might similarly emerge from the unwashed masses of tech enthusiasts. To really understand and predict what the office will look like in five years, the tech giants should keep their eyes and ears open–just like the rest of us.
title: “Office Space Designing Your Next Office” ShowToc: true date: “2023-02-01” author: “Maureen Marshall”
EVEN FIVE YEARS AGO, it was impossible to predict the spread of such technologies as Wi-Fi, which allows workers to become office nomads, yet always connected to e-mail and crucial corporate data. The technology has proved so popular, it’s a key force in reshaping the topography of the office. So what will the workplace actually look like five years from now, when such tools are ubiquitous and new technologies are springing up in equally surprising ways? At Cisco, and at Microsoft, researchers are looking for answers, trying to keep their companies at the vanguard of ongoing change brought about by technology.
Cisco VP Dave Rossetti heads a research group of 100 colleagues working on the office of the future. Rossetti talks about a workspace comprising free-floating employees who walk into a building and find an empty “generic office” nearest to their current team of collaborators. The office features boringly blank walls and surfaces when unoccupied, but senses when an employee wants to sit there, perhaps by reading his ID badge. Then it automatically customizes itself. Suddenly, the proper e-mail account appears on the PC, the Internet telephone adopts that employee’s extension. Even the digital picture frames render photos of the employee’s family, or a favorite Ansel Adams vista.
To make it all work—and to ensure roving employees can be properly located for urgent business—Rossetti and his team are working on technology called “presence.” It functions like popular instant-messaging software, which knows when you’re working on your PC and are available to chat. In the office of the future, presence will work on all your phones, PCs, laptops and handheld devices. When someone calls or e-mails you, software will route the incoming communication to whichever device you’re currently using. Rossetti has a crude prototype system configured for himself; he calls this “eating his own dog food.” When someone phones him at his office and he doesn’t pick up, the Cisco network routes the call to his home phone.
Eight hundred miles to the north, Microsoft has a somewhat different vision of the workplace in five years. Researchers don’t necessarily see the same physical transformation, but they’re predicting changes just as drastic. The company’s prophesies are on display in a chilly demonstration hall called the Center for Information Work on the company’s Redmond, Wash., campus. When visitors walk in, they’re treated to a simulation of the futuristic office of a mock company: carry a laptop or handheld PC into a meeting room or new office, and the devices immediately establish a wireless connection to the nearest printer or computer monitor. The company also imagines huge flat-panel displays on the walls of all conference rooms, multiple monitors on every desk and widespread use of videoconferencing. Instead of one camera’s recording a meeting, Microsoft researchers are developing a mushroom-shaped “Ringcam” that automatically trains one of five cameras on each person sitting in the room and broadcasts the meeting on the company intranet.
Like Cisco, Microsoft also thinks networks will have to get smarter about where we are and what device we’re carrying. Microsoft’s vision of the concept is called BestCom. Researcher Eric Horvitz says the software will read your calendar and have an idea of where you are at each moment. You’ll also be able to tell it how you prefer to be contacted (phone, e-mail, IM) and by whom. For example, you might choose to let your boss call you on your mobile phone, but have a stranger or pesky colleague routed to your e-mail. BestCom operates like a secretary, Horvitz says, and (for better or worse) you’ll never be out of touch.
All this sounds a bit scary, of course. But don’t call your local privacy advocate just yet. Today’s transforming technologies like Wi-Fi actually didn’t bubble up from the research labs of Microsoft and Cisco. The next set of changes that shape the future of the workplace might similarly emerge from the unwashed masses of tech enthusiasts. To really understand and predict what the office will look like in five years, the tech giants should keep their eyes and ears open—just like the rest of us.
